Tower Theatre

802 S. Broadway,

Los Angeles,
CA90014

Even for the period this place is just…insane! So rococo and over the top, gothic and renaissance with some deco sprinkled on top. I love it. Its like William Randolph Hearst took a break from the Castle and decided to build a theater.

I cant imagine how anyone was supposed to keep that much maintained short of Hearst’s money and staffing. I doubt the concert venue owners can do more with that clock than just take the broken pieces out and cover where the faces were. Assuming that even the 1971 remodel brings it up to today’s seismic requirements.

Does anyone have pics of the Indian headdress fixtures and the director/actress statues? Its what telephoto lenses were made for if they havent been covered.

The only downtown theater called the Cameo that I remember was this one, the former Clune’s Broadway, north of Sixth Street, between the Arcade and the Roxie. It was open through at least part of the 1980s, showing Spanish language movies.

In the 1960s, when the Tower was still operating as the Newsreel Theatre, there was a television theater on the lower level, occupying the former lounge. It presented closed-circuit programs on a fairly large (for that time) projection screen. I don’t think they ever gave the television theater its own name, though.

Passed by this theater and it too looks abandoned form the outside though its exterior is in excellent condition. The marquee was advertising a “purim party”. Yikes! Not very exciting stuff. But at least it is still there.

A Wurlitzer model 216 pipe organ (2/10) was installed in the Tower Theatre when it opened. There has been some confusion about this Opus 1620 Wurlitzer since it is reported to have been shipped to the Garrick Theatre on Apr 23, 1927. But the Garrick had already been demolished by then to make way for the Tower. The organ remained in the Tower for only a couple of years before being moved to the Los Angeles Theatre for its opening in Jan 1931. It has subsequently gone into private hands.

As you know, SoCal, the Orpheum has been profitable for a while now. Technically the other theaters have not been abandoned, since they are earning their owners some money as filming locations, churches, etc. And there is movement behind the scenes right now, that if it pans out, could mean a second chance at life for some of these places.

Love the link to the 1951 photo academy133 posted. Its unfortunate all these amazing theaters are abandoned on Broadway downtown. With the recent opening of the megaplex a few blocks away, there really is no future for any of these old cinemas to show movies again, or even to become live performance venues. There’s many of those in the area already. I suppose they’ll just remain relics to tour of a time in movie history that is long gone.

I just heard from Ed Kelsey, who gives the history presentations for the LAHTF’s “All About” tours. He said he has a 1967 photo of the theater which shows the tower intact; he believes it was removed in the early 1970s as a result of the San Fernando quake. If he finds a more precise date in his files, I will post it here.

Just took another look at that Wikipedia page. As well as giving an incorrect date for the removal of the tower top, it repeats that business about the Tower being the location of a sneak preview of “The Jazz Singer,” which others here have given evidence as being untrue.